Bathinda: Despite history of differences and the edict issued by Akal Takht in 1978 on not having any relations with Nirankaris, informal Sarbat Khalsa-appointed parallel jathedars Dhian Singh Mand and Baljit Singh Daduwal have strongly condemned the attack at Nirankari Bhawan, Amritsar, in which 3 persons were killed and 19 injured.Daduwal said he held meetings with jathedars to see if they could visit families of victims in light of the edict, which still stands. Mand and Daduwal called the attack as cowardly and said Punjab, with its hard-earned peace, could not afford incidents which push it back into the dark days.They said they condemned any terrorist activity and killing of innocents, no matter which sect they belonged to. On April 13, 1978, 16 persons, including 13 Sikhs, were killed in Amritsar during a clash with Nirankaris. The Sikhs wanted to stop a convention of the Nirankari mission. In the years after, Punjab witnessed more than one-and-a-half decades of militancy.Mand said they stood by the bereaved families and ideological differences should not come in the way of condemning the attack. "After 1978, there has been no provocation from either side and both have been living peacefully," he said.Daduwal said though the Akak Takht edict was still relevant, ideological differences should not be considered in the face of attack on humanity. "We will hold a meeting to decide whether we can visit bereaved families to condole the deaths of innocents. We never want black days back and are all for maintaining the hard-earned peace," he said, calling on the state government to identify and punish those responsible at the earliest.

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